Here’s an update on the last few days, the hotel computer is down and I’m STILL formatting the external backup drive so I wont be sending my backlog of emails for a while it seems…

So for the past 3 days I’ve been boarding from 11am til 5pm under varying conditions. It kinda sleeted the other day (lower down-ish) and was sunny the day before that so the surface was all weird in different spots. There’s been no-one around early in the week so Ive been practising my transitions on different angled slopes, checking out the different fields at the same time. I found a great “first thing” warm up area at the base of one of the main gondolas, very handy. I do a few runs there, get my turns sorted and then head up to the top. I’m not attacking major steep terrain yet, most of that stuff is mougled to buggery anyway. By Aussie standards I’ve already got cracken back sorted for sure. That turning lesson I got last season in Oz has paid for itself a-plenty.

Yesterday I fell in love with my helmet, I was kinda finished for the day and took the winding (newbies) snow road down to the lifts area, it was icy in this one region and the board was not responding well, a much faster boarder zoomed by at the same time and I put the toe edge breaks on pretty hard, then I made the mistake of standing up a bit too straight and whammo my board flew up and the back of my head hit the ice first, if I hadn’t of had that helmet I reckon I would’ve been fucked up for a few days at least. I pulled a muscle in my neck but it’s already recovering well today (weds 4/2/04).

AND TODAY! BLISS! the best day so far for sure. It dumped last night so there was fluffiness at the top only I didn’t realize how good it was till after I did a few warm ups down below then took the gondola up. I hung out for the rest of the day at the big everlasting grad area. Only I took a side track around the half way mark into a newly created section for boarders, no-one about too, weird. It used to be my private powder stash, now its an undulating jump park that still ends with a 20 second glide through untouched thick stuff (none of the japs go off the main path, suckers!). The park is now called “Deano’s Fun Run”. It was aaaaaall miiine! Aaaall Day! The first time I did the powder run on that last leg I said to myself “hmm I think I may possibly do that one again” …and again …and again, etc,. It was great coz it was the only path that took me straight back to the lifts without the need for any of the usual skating. I was feeling pretty brave today, prolly coz of the powder flights and the hip flask, and decided that on the last lift ride back I was going to brave it down this more advanced pathway down the mountain over on the other side. I got there and the fricken thing was fully roped off (an official was still there too), so I had to take the usual route down the “newbie road”, which was much much smoother today. I had a hoot dodging fallen newbies along the way, no drama’s or spills and I also took a more advanced turn near the bottom without any stacks to report. I’ve actually been really good at not stacking this time around, i must be improving. I got home and “The Yoda of the massage world” was in the hotel and I was booked next! Fuckin-A! I had a lightning quick shower and got my spine and associated muscles well and truly sorted! I then took Oscar for a fun time at the hot baths, ate a scrummy dinner and here I sit grinning from ear to elbow!

While I can now do the whole transition thang pretty well – at varying degrees of slope I might add – I still tend to break a bit too much for someone into speed/adrenalin like yourself. I’m not up on how to go straight yet and the hard ground mixed with the high speed doesn’t make me feel any more confident. When I’m in the thick stuff I can stick the board straight as well as carve with no problem for speed, it’s only on the firmer ground where I tend to slow down a bit and slalom alot (hence slower), but it’s still brilliant fun nonetheless. I’m also planning on not boarding on fridays*, saturdays* or sundays (*during the day, heh heh heh) as the crowds are frightfully beastly, and I can hang with Oscar AAAAALL day long and play trains too! I’ve discovered just how much he needs me to learn stuff, he seems to copy what I do more than Mina, so it’s important at this stage to download all my worldly knowledge and MEL scripts into the little tike while I have the chance. He turns 3 on the 21st, after that he’s an old man and can’t learn much more really.

Looks like it’s going to dump all fricken week too, great excuse to “do the whole mountain”!

Hey here’s that piccy of me old mate stevo I was telling you about.
Shame it was such a bad hair day, but then, if I had’ve stopped to groom
that morning maybe I wouldn’t have run into him at all!